In a nutshell Race to Witch Mountain is the story of Jack Bruno, a Las Vegas taxi driver who happens into two stranded extra terrestrials. The two adolescent ET’s, who look creepily like the kids from Village of the Damned, need to get back to their spaceship to get home to convince their planet not to invade ours. Throw in friendly astrophysicist Dr. Friedman, a large crew of government agents trying to stop and capture the kids, and mix in one alien assassin and you have the latest family friendly Disney action picture.
Let’s focus on the good shall we. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is in his usual charismatic form here, and apart from some cheesy moments he delivers a solid performance. I can’t tell whether or not he made a good choice switching to family friendly comedies over action flicks so soon…it’s like if Ahhnold did Kindergarten Cop before he ever got to Commando. The story on a whole is pretty solid and at times delivers some good laughs and tension when need be. The alien assassin sent to terminate the kids, the Siphon, is pretty awesome in design and looks like a cross between the Alien, the Predator, and something from Resident Evil. Also of note is a cameo by Garry Marshall as UFO expert Dr. Harlan.
On the downside of this one first and foremost is the special effects. I’m amazed and surprised by the lack of sophistication here. The effects resemble something you would see on a ride in Disney World, not in a Disney movie. One scene in particular stands out, when the main characters are standing on what is supposed to be a bridge to the spaceship made out of light, it looks so badly superimposed that the only comparison I can think of is the ‘Make Your Own Music Video’ booths you see at theme parks. Past the effects the story is just subpar, I will never understand how Disney creates these amazingly fleshed out stories for their animated faire, but when it comes to live action they phone it in for the most part. They even go so far as to use quick out of place conversations to explain plot holes and extreme coincidences. I know, it’s a kid’s movie not Citizen Kane, but when it comes to Disney I don’t think they can use that excuse as they have shown in the past that they have the ability to produce great product. They just don’t always choose to when they already have something to fill the theater seats aka The Rock, (Yeah I know, Dwayne Johnson, but you’ll always be The Rock to me big guy). I could go on about the problems with the execution of the story, (pun intended), but let’s stay to the point. The last big problem I had with the flick was the kid’s dialogue. Now, the writer’s run into a problem…they don’t look like aliens, how do we make them seem otherworldly? I know! Let’s give them an odd speech pattern and have them say people’s full name every time they address them. This wouldv’e been fine for the first ten minutes of interaction but throughout the movie the little girl would consistently say “We must go here Jack Bruno”. Trust me, it get’s annoying.
Race to Witch Mountain was, to me, a disappointment. Admittedly I’m a bit out of their demographic, but I do enjoy children’s movies quite a bit when they’re done right. They can be the best innocent fun out when they succeed. This flick, however, did not. It felt a lot more like a made for TV movie than a big budget adventure flick. If you have kids and have already seen Coraline then maybe this one is for you, otherwise I would steer clear at least until DVD.
4/10
